Laura’s eyes fluttered open, the familiar sight of her room settling down her emotions. She remembered falling asleep in the cauldron but was glad to see herself back in her room. Much to her relief, she was clothed, and Ana was sitting on the floor beside her bed, her head resting on the nightstand, a wet cloth in her hands.

Laura hurried to the bathroom and retched until her stomach started aching. Blood was mixed with the bile when she finally puked, but she was little bothered to care. When she opened the tap, she realized the water wasn’t the usual water, and there was an essence of mana subtly interwoven within, something she had failed to notice all along. Was this even safe? She didn’t dare to sip the water flowing out of the tap. At least they drank water from the wells.

She stepped out feeling wobbly again and went back under the sheets. The curtains in her room were closed, but she could see the bright light beyond. With much effort, she focused her thoughts on her mage status.

[Laura Valecrest]

[Family Heirloom: Splintering]

[Primary Class: Battle Mage]

[Secondary Class: Locked]

[Mana in Komar: Level 1

* Mana Recovery rate: 1 every ten breaths]

[Mana Available: 100/100]

[Spells: None]

[Magic Artifacts: None]

[Perks:

* Maniacal tendencies: Grants user immunity against threats and bloodshed.

* Resilience: Grants user better stress management ability.]

[Ailments:

* Underdeveloped brain: Cured 42%

* Ruptured magic conduits: Cured 100%

* Despondency: Cured 34%

* Memory Loss: Cured 9%

* Villainess: Incurable]

The next time she woke up, it was already dark, and the room was bathed in the warm flickering glow of a single candle on her nightstand. A cool breeze wafted through the open window, rustling the curtains, their shadows dancing on the wall next to the entrance. Laura felt better than last night and noticed her brother’s presence beside the mana lamp on her table. He rested his chin thoughtfully on his palm, elbows plopped on her table, as his eyes darted around the deserted lawn outside.

"Brother…" Laura called out weakly and pulled her body up. She leaned against the headrest, and Byrak walked to her with a smile. “Get some sleep. I feel a lot better than last night.”

"The worms got the better of you, didn't they?" He chuckled as he placed the back of his hand on her forehead. "Your fever went down, and you aren't perspiring anymore, so I believe you are ready for morrow’s practice.”

A faint chuckle had her clutching her stomach in pain. “I dare not, brother,” she said with a weak smile.

“It’ll be a while before you can get up,” Byrak walked to the bookshelf and browsed her collection. She had drowned every one of them; most were books on etiquette and history, very few on things like mana that she wanted to know. “I will get some more for you. Ana told me you finished reading every book on this shelf. You’ll become a bookworm at this rate.”

“No worms, please,” Laura held her palm against her mouth and retched. “Can’t handle them anymore.”

Byrak laughed and walked toward the door. “Keep track of the day on a sheet of paper and hold it with you. Every day, every moment. It’ll help you ascertain when you’ll… die.” Byrak paused, glancing at her frown. “I think you should be able to see incidents that impacted you more clearly now. Your lack of focus was holding you back, but I suppose it isn’t something I need to worry about anymore. Search for answers that’ll help you save yourself. The clues are in you, hidden underneath a thick veil of fear of death. Mother used to say that to me, but more to herself.”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

He materialized a glowing ball of light on his hand and brought it close to his face. Squinting his eyebrows, he dispersed the mana and ran his hands over his hair. “I found mine long back. Answers.”

There was something frightening about his expression that Laura couldn’t quite understand. She watched his disappearing back as he shut the door behind him.

–

Laura eased her breathing and took a few staggered breaths, trying to break the flow of air into her body. Replenishing the mana involved focusing on extracting the mana from the air she breathed, but she had little clue on how that would happen. But, much to her surprise, it did, and she saw her numbers go up by two for the abnormally large number of breaths she took, filling up all the mana she had used at a snail's pace.

[Mana Available: 56/100]

Laura continued taking controlled breaths and materialized the glowing ball of mana in her hands. She had yet to learn any spells, so all she could do was churn these threads of mana in her hands and mold them into a shape of her choice. Just like how Byrak did, albeit on a much smaller scale. Laura saw the mana depleting very slowly as she dispersed the thread of mana from the swirling circle. It didn’t take much energy to materialize the mana from her Komar, and she was able to keep the threads replenished for a long time, even with her mana reserve. Though, she realized she couldn’t recover and use the mana at the time.

[Mana Available: 54/100]

“I told you to improve footwork,” Byrak raised his brows and smacked her head. “Stop playing with mana. Unless you learn spells, there’s no way you will empty that pitiful reserve.”

Laura rubbed her head and glared at him. “It’s my last day at practice. Teach me some spells!”

“The Academy will do that for you,” Byrak smirked and closed his eyes. His arms were crossed before him, sword lodged between them. “I only know high-level destructive spells, so I can’t train a novice mage. Of course, the low-level spells aren’t worth to be taught, so I won’t disgrace myself.”

“Brother!” Laura punched his arms, her lips pulled to a thin line.

“It’s much harder for battle mages to learn spells,” Byrak rubbed the back of his head and shrugged. “For elemental mages, say with a fire affinity, all they have do is channel their mana into an artifact, and depending on their mana reserve, they can cast insanely powerful spells. On the other hand, we have to manually learn to weave the threads of mana into magic circuits for every additional spell in our arsenal. Now, if you don’t know what magic circuits are, how would you procure them?”

Laura glanced at him, trying to pick out lies from his words. With an aggrieved look, she asked, “Does that mean not every mage can make shapes out of mana like us?”

“Yes,” Byrak leaned against the stable confines of the paddocks lazily. “Mana can be transferred only between similar circuits. So, from the irregular circuits of your body, you will transfer it to the irregular circuits of free mana and create another circuit for casting a spell by weaving the threads. Battlemage researchers have discovered some circuits that we can weave, but none of them even come close to what elemental mages can cast with their artifacts. So…”

“We are the weakest mages,” Laura sighed, waiting for Byrak to reprimand her words, but he just looked at her smugly.

“Is your brother weak?” Byrak raised his sword.

“No…” Laura replied, but she knew he was strong because of his skills in the sword. “But you aren’t a strong mage.”

“Always remember this,” Byrak moved his practice sword and placed it against her neck. “It doesn’t matter how strong of a mage you are because the same slash that kills a random hobo will kill you. That’s enough talk for today. Take your stance!”

Laura was beaten black and blue this time, her strikes not reaching anywhere close to Byrak’s torso. His parries sent her sword flying multiple times until her calloused hands started bleeding. She held on firmly and guarded his strikes one after the other for the rest of the practice, though the thrums made her hands numb by the end.

“Academy starts tomorrow,” Byrak said as Laura collapsed on the verdant grass. “Tessia has told me she’ll take of you, but I’m more worried about that.”

“I’ll be fine, brother,” Laura said, her breathing huffed.

“Do you remember the date?” Byrak asked as he pulled her up.

“12th of Frostfall, fifth year of grace, 1320,” Laura said grimly, using his arm to support herself. “Lord Yyk is still there, watching me bleed to death in a dark alley. Another man was beside him, but I couldn’t quite see him because of all the fog.”

“Early hours of dawn,” Byrak held his chin, watching his feet. “Anything else?”

“A woman,” Laura said as she closed her eyes, eyes squinted. “A woman was lying in a pool of blood. An azure bracelet in her arms. She was older… I think.”

“You’ll be staying in the Academy, so try not to think about it too much,” Byrak said with a smile. “If you don’t change anything significantly, we can stop it as long as we know everything about the day. Leave the rest to me, and enjoy your fruitful days. I haven’t studied in the Academy, so I can’t exactly give you any guidance, but make sure to learn as many spells as possible. For a battle mage, the versatility of the spells is essential because we aren’t nukes like elemental mages with their artifacts.”

Laura nodded and followed her brother back to the manor.

“Say, brother,” Laura stopped him when they reached the door. “Tessia isn’t your fiancee, right?”

“You can ask Father,” Byrak scowled and slammed the door in her face.